Monday, March 12, 2012

Think
the media is portraying the US Department of Health and Human Services
contraceptive mandate accurately? Have you heard any coverage of this:
the only category of drugs which, under federal mandate, must be
provided without co-pay or deductible is contraceptives. Though an
insulin-dependent diabetic will perish without insulin or other
anti-hyperglycemic therapy, there is no similar mandate to
provide it to the patient. Though a patient with severe heart
arrhythmia will die without medical therapy, there is no federal mandate
to provide it without cost. Life-saving medicines for a cancer patient?
No mandate. Think the administration cares as much about an asthmatic
having access to an inhalant, without which she may die, or an epilectic
having access to anti-seizure medications, as it does about drugs that
support sexual freedom? Think again. Drugs that are required to
save lives – without which the patient will certainly die – are not
required to be provided to patients without cost. Contraceptives, which
are not lifesaving drugs required for survival, uniquely enjoy the
mandate to be provided at no cost. The HHS mandate is about ideology,
not good medicine! Have you heard this reported anywhere? Why not?